Novamind And Field Trip Expand Footprint Of Psychedelic Clinics

Novamind Inc. NVMDF, a company specializing in mental health and psychedelics treatment, announced on Tuesday it intends to open four new psychiatry clinics in Utah.

The clinics, operating under the Cedar Psychiatry brand, are expected to increase the company’s patient volume by 225% in 2021, according to its own estimations.

Field Trip Health Ltd. FTRP FTRPF, another company in the psychedelics space, announced its fifth clinic location in the country with an opening in Houston, Texas as well as five future locations for its chain of psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy clinics.

Both companies are expanding their base of revenue-generating clinics, which use legal therapies. The most common of these treatments is ketamine, a legal dissociative drug often used in anesthesia, which can also produce mind-altering effects.

The companies are establishing an infrastructure in preparation for the eventual legalization of other psychedelic molecules like psilocybin and MDMA.

Novamind Speeds Up Business Plan In Response To High Demand

“Initially we had thought that the clinic footprint would double from four to eight by the end of 2021. That was the target we had set upon going public,” Yaron Conforti, Novamind’s CEO, told Benzinga.

Novamind decided to scale up its existing footprint upon seeing a substantial increase in demand at its four Utah locations. The new clinics are scheduled to open between July and September of 2021.

“In 2019 we saw 10,000 patient visits, in 2020 there were 20,000, and now we’re expecting 65,000 within this calendar year,” Conforti said.

The company has already begun construction on three sites and has leased a fourth property.

“It’s an opportunity for us to develop our model at a greater scale before we really try and go for dozens of clinics across the U.S.,” added the exec.

More Than Psychedelics Treatment: “We’re a full service mental health clinic,” said Reid Robison, chief medical officer at Novamind and founder of the Cedar clinics network.

The MD explained that the clinics provide a wide range of services including medication management, talk therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, as well as ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, which is administered to less than half of the patients who seek treatment at their locations. 

Conforti added that there’s a growing trend of people seeking alternative mental health modalities such as psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy.

Field Trip Continues Expansion Plans

Field Trip announced the grand opening of its Houston clinic, adding to the company’s presence in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Plans to set up shop in the California cities of San Diego and San Carlos as well as Seattle, Washington D.C. and Fredericton, Canada are also in the works for Field Trip.

According to a press release, Field Trip has entered into leases in these locations and has already, or will soon, begun construction, depending on the location.

Field Trip’s clinics use ketamine in combination with psychotherapy, mindfulness, and self-care. 

“This step-by-step approach all takes place in a controlled and comfortable, spa-like environment that in itself promotes healing,” reads the company’s press release.

Field Trip CEO Ronan Levy previously told Benzinga the company plans to be operating a minimum of 75 new clinics in North America by 2024.